“Their Normal is Just Different to Ours”: How Does Police Occupational Culture Contribute to Their Understanding of Autism?

Hepworth, Diana

Abstract

This exploratory, qualitative PhD study aimed to explore how police occupational culture theory can be used to view police behaviours and attitudes towards autism, and how autistic individuals perceive the police following experiences as suspects. Police occupational culture is a key component of understanding the motivations and attitudes of police officers, and how they interact with the public and is vital to inform training and reform. Understanding how occupational culture impacts on learning, attitudes and actions of police officers towards autistic suspects allows us to improve future training and policy in ways that may have the most impact.

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 15 police officers from forces in England and Wales and five autistic adults with direct experience of the police as suspects. These interviews were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis with deductive and inductive coding. The key findings revealed that while police officers had a superficial awareness of autism, their understanding was rooted in stereotypes and medicalised language. Aspects of their occupational culture resulted in them feeling unsupported and disappointed in the job role, having joined the police with the goal of being crimefighters, when the reality requires them to be peacekeepers. A unique and key finding was that the use of suspicion as a positive tool, used to detect differences and adapt their responses accordingly, contradicting previous literature on occupational culture. Police officers had a desire to treat people fairly and justly, but were lacking the appropriate knowledge. However, the experiences of autistic participants did not echo the positive attitudes of the police participants. Overall, they were dissatisfied with their treatment during encounters and custody, and conveyed a lack of trust and suspicion towards police motives. Drawing on the findings, suggestions for changes to training, policy and procedure are discussed, as well as future research directions.

Citation

Hepworth, D. (2023). “Their Normal is Just Different to Ours”: How Does Police Occupational Culture Contribute to Their Understanding of Autism?. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 5, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 28, 2024
• Award Date: Dec 8, 2023